winter

Would you like to take a walk with me through the chemical winter wonderland of snowflakes? Well, we chemists know that the stunning six-sided symmetry of snowflakes (Figure 1) results from repeated arrangement of water molecules into a hexagonal crystal structure (Figure 2).

About a decade ago, I wrote briefly about the interesting experiment of throwing boiling hot water into air that is below -18°C (0°F) (see Ice Clouds).